


(w)HELP! ♡

by lala_pipo



Category: SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Veterinarians, Fluff, Humor, Jonghyun and Taemin are cousins, M/M, OnTae are a side pairing, Romance, Slice of Life, and Jinki is the hot boyfriend Taemin likes to show off
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-02 02:32:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15787149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lala_pipo/pseuds/lala_pipo
Summary: Kim Jonghyun’s life revolves around his beloved puppy Roo. When she starts acting differently than usual he gets worried and decides to visit the vet for a check-up. At the animal clinic, Roo becomes a patient of Dr. med. vet. Kim Kibum; a young, aspiring vet who looks more like a model posing for a doctor’s clothing catalog than an actual medically trained professional. After a routine examination Jonghyun is relieved to hear that his puppy is perfectly healthy, but almost passes out when Dr. Kim tells him that Roo is pregnant…





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Warning(s): None – unless the thought of dogs giving birth makes you squeamish!
> 
> A/N: While writing this fic I read a lot about dog pregnancies and watched a dozen videos of Dachshunds giving birth. However, for the sake of the plotline I had to change the timing and procedures a tiny itsy-bitsy bit, so this is not 100% accurate.

  
Day 32

The waiting room was busy at ten in the morning on a Saturday, children anxiously sitting next to their parents with their short legs dangling from the chairs and their tiny chubby hands holding tightly onto the pet carriers in their lap. Bunnies with a cold, limping hamsters or guinea pigs with runny eyes, the list of patients was long and Jonghyun looked around, his eyes coming to a halt when he spotted a French bulldog puppy who lay on the floor, a small pet cone fastened around its neck. It looked pitiful, and Jonghyun hoped Roo wouldn’t have to wear one after they got their diagnosis. She hated that thing too much and had desperately tried to get it off with her tiny paws in the past, whining loudly to beg for his mercy.

She was curled up in his lap now, her snout resting on his arm, big eyes looking up at him, appearing to say something like ‘Daddy, I want to go home.’ It broke Jonghyun’s heart, so he fondled her floppy ears, trying to soothe her with calming words and gentle pats.

He didn’t want to be at the vet either.

Jonghyun wasn’t fond of doctors, hospitals, or anything that had just remotely to do with institutions that decided on the life or death of someone. The clinical smell; a cocktail of disinfectant and latex gloves pierced right through his nostrils, making him want to leave the place as quickly as possible. But he was there for Roo, enduring the discomfort he experienced for her sake.

“Mr. Kim with Byulroo.”

A young woman dressed in pink medical scrubs suddenly stood in the door, holding a clipboard in her hand, reading off his name before lifting her head to look around. She started smiling when Jonghyun got up, cradling Roo in his arms.

“Please follow me,” she said friendly, her long ponytail bobbing with every step she took. They walked through a long corridor, closed rooms to their left and right, the walls between them covered with framed photos of funny looking animals, such as a hefty English bulldog smiling happily as it sat in a brightly colored yellow swing.

“Please wait here for a moment. Doctor Kim will be with you in a minute. If you want to you can sit down over there,” the woman explained professionally and pointed toward an empty chair.

“Thank you,” he answered meekly and bowed his head when she smiled at him and left the room.

“Everything will be okay, I promise,” Jonghyun whispered worryingly as Roo whimpered heartbreakingly, something she had begun doing constantly a few days ago. He carefully rocked her in his arms like a baby, walking up and down the room while trying to ignore that they were in the middle of a doctor’s office; a metal table building the center, and cabinets filled with an uncountable number of medicaments and ampules lined up to their right. The only dab of color in the otherwise white room was a big framed photo showing a gray and brown toy poodle looking at the camera with heart-shaped glasses on their small snouts in front of a pink background.

Jonghyun turned away from the frame when he heard the door swing open, his eyes immediately falling onto a young man who was dressed in white scrubs, a stethoscope hanging around his neck, and black roundish glasses sitting on the top of his nose. Jonghyun’s first impression was that he looked more like a model posing for a doctor’s clothing catalog than an actual medically trained professional.

“Good morning! Who do we have here?” he asked energetically and immediately looked down at the clipboard in his left hand. “A four-year-old long-haired Dachshund bitch named Byulroo.”

“Yeah, that’s correct,” Jonghyun nodded mildly and dropped his gaze instantly when the doctor looked up at them.

“If you could please place her on the table.”

The doctor’s voice was calm, but the authority in it told Jonghyun that he wasn’t someone he should keep waiting, so he followed the instructions wordlessly, and walked over to the table, gently placing Roo down onto it who let out another pitiful whine and wanted to scramble right back into his arms.

“I know, honey, I know,” he replied caringly, worry ringing in his voice. To him, there was nothing worse than seeing his dog suffer. She was his family, his baby, the only thing that kept him sane at times.

“She’s an adorable little lady. Why did you bring her?”

The doctor came up to them, Jonghyun noticing the name tag that was attached to a chest pocket on his white scrub top, the name ‘Dr. med. vet. Kim Kibum’ with the silhouette of a cat and a dog sitting next to each other printed on it. The vet let her sniff his hand before gently stroking her tiny head, Jonghyun seeing her tail wag weakly in response. That was a good sign, Roo didn’t wag her tail for just anyone. She had standards like a true lady should.

“She acts a little odd for about two weeks now and I’m at a loss because I don’t know her like that. At first, she was just a little more affectionate than usual, constantly following me around, sleeping in my lap, snuggling up to me as close as possible at night. I thought nothing of it, but a few days ago she started whining whenever I left the house without her, even if it was just for a few minutes. I also have the feeling that she became a little chubbier? But I didn’t change her food or anything. I don’t know if it’s because she has been lazing around all day lately. Usually, she likes fetching things a lot, but at the moment I can throw her favorite ball, and she just looks after it and then at me as if she wants to say ‘get it yourself’,” Jonghyun explained solicitously, trying to put in as many details as possible so it was easier for the doctor to comprehend his concerns.

The problem was Roo looked fine from an objective point of view, her eyes clear and her fur shiny, but if someone knew her as well as Jonghyun did, they would immediately notice that something was amiss.

There was an understanding hum, and the doctor leaned down to the dog on the table, taking a closer look at her eyes and mouth before straightening up again, holding her head in both hands.

“Is she spayed?”

Jonghyun furrowed his brows, head tilting to the side.

“No, to me it would have felt wrong to do that. As a man I’m in no position to decide on the parity of my female dog,” he stated, indignant. There was a small snicker and Jonghyun looked over at the man on the other side of the table, not sure if vets were allowed to laugh at the owners of their patients.

“I see. Do you take her off her leash on your walks sometimes?” Dr. Kim continued, his hands now gently lifting Roo up so she was standing up on all fours.

“She’s not a big fan of walks. I do sometimes but she rarely moves out of sight.”

His dog was obviously not feeling well, and the doctor asked about their walking routine? Jonghyun watched as Dr. Kim’s hands felt his dog’s tummy, Roo looking up at him a little bewildered. For a second Jonghyun wondered whether he should ask for a female doctor to make Roo feel more comfortable but then he shook his head at his own ridiculous thought, remembering that Roo was, in fact, a dog and not a human.

“I would like to do an ultrasound if that’s okay with you,” Dr. Kim said after a while, question marks popping up above Jonghyun’s head.

“An ultrasound? Do you think something is wrong with her stomach? Food poisoning or something?”

Jonghyun was immediately alarmed, chest feeling heavy as he looked down at his dog who sat there patiently, the tip of her pink tongue peeking out.

“No, I actually believe she’s perfectly fine.”

“So, why the ultrasound then?”

There was a mixture of relief and fear washing over Jonghyun, and he gently petted Roo behind the ears to comfort her as well as himself.

“I think your dog might be pregnant.”

Dr. Kim smiled kindly at Jonghyun as he walked around him to sit down at the desk in the corner, and started typing down something on a computer.

“Pregnant? But how?” Jonghyun asked in shock, mouth agape, staring at his innocent little dog who watched him with her big, brown eyes. She was his baby, an innocent creature who didn’t know anything about the corrupted world she was living in.

“How?” Another snicker and Dr. Kim looked up from the computer screen. “I hope you don’t expect me to give you the birds and the bees talk now Mr. Kim,” he added after a short pause and lifted his right eyebrow, a scar visible in the outer corner. Jonghyun deliberated if he had sustained it during the exercise of his profession; maybe a scratch from an agitated cat, dog or bunny.

“Maybe she went out of sight for a few minutes without you noticing. If bitches are in heat this can happen very quickly. But let’s get the ultrasound first to be sure about that. It’s only a presumption as of now,” Dr. Kim elaborated calmly before rolling back on his swivel chair to get up again.

“Would you please follow me,” he said and walked over to the door, Jonghyun still not completely comprehending that his precious dog might have had unprotected sex with a stranger she had met at a park. He hadn’t raised her to run away with the first dog that crossed her path.

“You didn’t do what the doctor assumes you did, right? I mean – I didn’t even give you the talk, you know,” he asked her slowly, looking down a little bashfully. A sigh left his lips when she only looked up at him with big eyes, her tail slowly wagging from left to right. Taking a deep breath he picked her up and followed the vet to a room on the opposite side of the corridor, an ultrasound scanner coming into view as soon as Jonghyun entered the room.

“Do I need to get an assistant or do you think you can hold her down so she doesn’t wiggle around?” Dr. Kim asked as he went over to a cabinet and opened a drawer, pulling out what looked like a hair trimmer.

“No, it’s okay. I can hold her down. What is the hair trimmer for?” Jonghyun asked a little distressed, following Dr. Kim to the table next to the ultrasound scanner.

“I have to shave her belly for better results. It’s not going to be much. I won’t hurt her, don’t worry,” Dr. Kim reassured with a sincere smile; it was a pretty one, dimples becoming visible on the apples of his cheeks.

Dr. Kim looked young, was probably younger than Jonghyun was, and Jonghyun pondered how a person that young could already be qualified enough to decide the destiny of an animal. Wasn’t that too much responsibility for such a young person? Being a vet wasn’t something Jonghyun could imagine to do for a living. He wouldn’t be able to sleep well at night after an unsuccessful surgery, knowing that a family had lost a member due to his failure.

“Please lie her down on her back. It would be nice if you could press her down gently on the chest with one hand, and use the other to hold her hind paws.”

Another whine later Roo was on her back, looking a little disoriented as the vet turned on the hair trimmer and carefully shaved off some part of her belly fur. She kept still, though, making Jonghyun very proud of her who constantly encouraged her by telling her what a good girl she was. When Dr. Kim was finished the lower part of Roo’s belly looked like a pinkish rectangle, the lines perfectly symmetrical.

“Is she your only dog?” Dr. Kim asked as he placed the hair trimmer aside into a steel tray, the sound making Roo turn her head curiously.

“Yeah, she is. I got her when she was just three months old. She has been with me ever since,” he replied, recalling how tiny she had been when he had first brought her home.

“That’s very sweet.”

There was another cute dimple grin, which even made Jonghyun smile for the first time since he had entered the building.

“I own two dogs myself. You might have seen them on the photo in the other office,” Dr. Kibum recounted as he sat down onto a small rolling stool, and picked up a white bottle from the little apparatus cart to his left.

“The two toy poodles?”

“Yeah, exactly. They are my two little Dementors as I like to call them,” he laughed affectionately and squirted some gel onto Roo’s belly. The comment made Jonghyun laugh as well and he instantly started liking the vet a little bit more because he had made a Harry Potter reference.

“What are their actual names?” he asked with interest, watching attentively as Dr. Kim got the transducer and placed it on Roo’s belly, Jonghyun feeling her butt wiggle for a moment as the plastic touched her bare skin.

“I’m a big fan of the Japanese clothing brand Comme Des Garçons, so I called them Comme Des and Garcons.”

Dr. Kim’s eyes were now directed at the little monitor behind him, and he pressed a few buttons on the console with his free hand, while he moved the transducer around on Roo’s belly with the other. It took a moment before Dr. Kim turned back towards him with a smile, pointing at a spot on the ultrasound.

“Well, as far as I can see here little Byulroo here will become a mom in a few weeks. Congratulations,” he explained with a grin, Jonghyun’s eyes widening in surprise.

Roo was pregnant?

“Are you for real?”

Jonghyun’s throat felt very dry all of a sudden and his knees turned wobbly. He had planned to become a father one day, but not now, and certainly not to a litter of puppies.

“Yes, can you see that movement here? That’s one puppy for sure,” Dr. Kim interpreted the display of Roo’s insides on the monitor. Jonghyun squinted his eyes and tilted his head from one side to the other, but all he saw was a badly filmed black and white movie of a volcano shortly before an eruption.

“Can you see how many there are?”

What if Roo was about to whelp twelve puppies? Was that even anatomical possible? There wasn’t enough space in her small body to fit twelve baby Roos.

“Unfortunately no. Due to the position in the abdomen, we can’t tell you how many puppies there are per ultrasound. That’s something we could only determine with an X-ray, but I would only recommend doing that for breeders who earn money with the breeding of dogs. But usually Dachshunds whelp between one to six puppies.”

Six puppies. Jonghyun felt dizzy. How was he supposed to take care of six puppies and one Roo? Would he have to give up his job and become a full-time dad for the next few months or even years? Would the state financially support him as a single dad?

“Are you okay?”

Dr. Kim’s voice brought Jonghyun back down to earth, and he looked at the vet and nodded weakly, not entirely sure if the word ‘okay’ was the right one to describe his current state.

“How am I supposed to take care of six puppies?” he asked, puzzled, eyes going back and forth between the vet and Roo.

“You can put them up for adoption or sell them. Dachshunds have become quite popular in recent years,” Dr. Kim suggested and wiped Roo’s tummy clean with a few tissues.

“Put them up for adoption or sell them?” Jonghyun’s voice came out way higher and more horrified than he had intended, and he apologized immediately when Dr. Kim seemed startled and blinked his eyes.

“But they are the offspring of my dog. I can’t just give them away. You can’t separate babies from their mother,” he squeaked, feeling tears well up in his eyes. He couldn’t take Roo’s babies away from her. How was he supposed to go on living if he knew that he had destroyed the life of his puppy?

“Well then –,” the vet didn’t seem too sure what he was supposed to say, so he halted for a moment, got up and threw the used tissues away. Jonghyun picked up Roo in the meantime, cradling her close to his chest as if he had just given birth to her.

“I guess you have to ask your significant other, a friend, or a family member to help and take care of the puppies in the first few months then. But taking care of that many puppies won’t be easy especially if you have no experience. It’s also very costly,” Dr. Kim added for consideration, coming up to Jonghyun to stroke Roo’s head.

“But maybe it won’t be six. Maybe it will be just one,” Jonghyun murmured, not sure what to do or think. He had visited the vet because he had been worried about his dog’s health only to discover that his dog was perfectly fine and pregnant.

“Yeah, that’s possible,” Dr. Kim agreed, taking a step back.

“So, what do I do now? Do I have to come back for regular checkups? How long does a dog pregnancy take? Do I have to prepare different food or something?” Jonghyun began babbling, one question after the other popping up. The first thing he had to do on his way home was to stop by at his local bookshop and buy books on dog pregnancies and puppy care.

“You don’t have to come back for a checkup unless she discharges blood or starts acting like she’s in pain. On the ultrasound it looked like she is in her fourth week, and a dog pregnancy lasts for around sixty to sixty-five days. Just make sure to make her feel comfortable, and be there for her. Depending on how many puppies she will whelp she will swell up quite a bit, don’t let her walk up any stairs and don’t let her run around too much. The danger of miscarriage is too big. She doesn’t need special food but increase her food ration. You have to remember she’s not eating for just herself anymore.”

The vet listed deliberately, lifting a finger after every statement he made, Jonghyun trying to take mental notes and nodding along to what Dr. Kim said.

“Do you have a card or something with a number I can call when I have more questions? I really don’t want to mess this up,” Jonghyun inquired, following Dr. Kim’s hand with his eyes as it moved swiftly to his shirt pocket and pulled out a card.

“This number you can call during office hours and this one –,” he paused and took out a pen from his pocket to write something down on the backside. “You can call out of office hours,” he finished his sentence with a smile, handing Jonghyun his card. The front of it looked professionally designed with the logo of the clinic printed at the top of it, and the office hours and contact numbers beneath it, but on the back of it Jonghyun found a cell phone number written in pen, the numbers pretty and even.

“Is that an emergency number or something?” Jonghyun wanted to know, holding Roo with one arm so he could stuff the card in the back pocket of his jeans.

“Something like that. It’s my cell phone number. If something is wrong with her, just give me a call.”

Jonghyun was perplexed at first, not knowing whether it was normal for vets to give out their private numbers to patients like that, but he was about to become a dad, and he was thankful for every help, so he simply thanked the doctor for the number without giving the gesture too much thought.

“Always at your service. I’m sure she will be a great mother,” the vet asserted as he walked Jonghyun over to the door and opened it.

“Thank you so much for your help.”

“No need to thank me. It’s what I’m here for. But I hope I won’t hear from you again,” Dr. Kim chuckled and Jonghyun looked at him flabbergasted. Wasn’t he a little rude?

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, if I don’t hear from you again, then I know everything went well, and Roo is doing fine.”

The clarification made Jonghyun smile again, and he nodded, hoping he wouldn’t need to stop by any time soon either.

  
Day 51

“Lee Taemin! What the actual fuck. Don’t throw your dirty socks around in my apartment,” Jonghyun cussed as he fished yet another white tennis sock out of one of his plant tubs standing in his living room.

“Sorry, I just hate wearing socks inside,” Taemin wailed as he sat crossed-legged in front of Roo’s basket, holding a small squishy giraffe in front of her face.

“Please throw them in the hamper next time,” Jonghyun sighed in defeat and walked straight to the bathroom to do the task himself. Maybe it had been a bad idea to let his little cousin temporarily move in, but Taemin was currently on semester break and had all the time in the world, so he had been Jonghyun’s number one choice in mission ‘PPR – short for Pregnant Princess Roo’.

“She’s gotten so fat,” Taemin snickered as Jonghyun came back into the living room to kneel down next to him.

“Language, Taemin, language! Don’t call a lady fat. She’s going to be a mom. She will give life to puppies. Be more respectful,” Jonghyun scolded his younger cousin, reaching forward to caress his dog’s head. Roo had blown up like a balloon in the past ten days, her belly almost touching the floor by now when she waddled through the apartment on her short legs. It was a funny picture, but he would never allow anyone to say something about her weight gain in front of her, that was just impolite. She was still the most beautiful dog out there.

“It’s not like she can understand us,” Taemin objected and lay down on his stomach with his head propped up on his hands so he was on eye level with Roo who immediately leaned towards him and gave Taemin’s nose a little lick, making the young man in front of her laugh.

“See, she still loves me.”

Jonghyun rolled his eyes before he ruffled Taemin’s hair with a smirk and stood up from the floor. What a doofus. One could think the military had knocked out all the nonsense in his cousin’s head, but he was still as big of an idiot as he had been before enlisting. Jonghyun loved him wholeheartedly, but he was still, in fact, an idiot.

“She only does that, because you are pretty, Tae. She always had a thing for pretty people,” he explained as he wiped the chips crumbs off the couch from last night’s ‘League of Legends’ game marathon, which had lasted until four in the morning. Living with a university student who was on semester break certainly wasn’t good for Jonghyun’s sleeping schedule.

“She must be the perfect matchmaker then. Ever tried using her to find yourself a date?”

Taemin turned on his back to lift his head a little, the most unflattering angle for anyone.

“I don’t use my dog for finding me a date. I’m not that desperate,” Jonghyun made clear and lay down on the couch.

“You tried hooking up with my boyfriend the last time you were drunk, and then started crying after he told you that he also doesn’t have a twin brother who is single,” Taemin pointed out with an impish grin, a blush creeping onto Jonghyun’s face.

“The emphasis is on drunk. I become horny and sentimental when I’m drunk, that’s all. Besides, I still don’t get how someone like Jinki ended up with a twat like you. I mean he’s a doctor, he saves people’s lives and you are a nerd who plays video games for money in his free-time.”

Jonghyun held up a cushion when Taemin threw the little giraffe at him, the toy bouncing off the soft material and falling onto the floor with a thud.

“First of all, I love you, too. And second of all fuck you, you are just jealous,” Taemin fired back and showed his cousin the middle finger. Jonghyun pouted in return, peeking over his cushion before he started whining loudly.

“I know, you are right. Why doesn’t Jinki have a twin brother?” he threw his hands up in the air theatrically, the cushion flying up a meter before it landed back in Jonghyun’s arms who pressed it close to his chest, cuddling it like a plush toy.

“What about Jinki’s friend Minho? He seemed to be interested in you.”

Taemin sat up again, stroking Roo’s head one last time before he stood up and joined his cousin on the couch, settling down in the space between the backrest and Jonghyun’s legs, wiggling his butt around until he sat comfortably.

“He has too much energy. Way too much. I can’t keep up with that. Also, he seriously wanted us to play golf together after I said that I’m really bad at playing soccer. Golf, can you imagine? Who am I? A seventy-year-old pensioner?” Jonghyun looked scandalized as he told his little anecdote, Taemin holding his stomach from laughing.

“Really? Jinki didn’t tell me that,” he chortled, patting Jonghyun’s leg in pity.

“Soon I will be a single dad with no one around who loves me. I hate this.”

The sigh that left Jonghyun’s mouth was long and deep, his whole body appearing to deflate before he breathed in again with his eyes closed. He was a good single – meaning he had no problem getting around without a partner in his life, had no problem with shopping for a single household, going to weddings alone, going to married couples dinner parties alone, had no problem to sit at his table in the evening to eat dinner alone, but the more singles around him decided to settle down for steady relationships the more aware he became of the fact that something was missing in his life. It wasn’t the sex he was missing, it was more the feeling of wanting someone to be there when he couldn’t fall asleep again, or when he was sick and hated his life. Was there something worse than lying in one’s bed with the flu, body hurting and aching with no one around, so one had to get up to make their own tea, and buy their own medicine?

“Some of my fellow students are quite cute twinks, I’m sure they would be interested in having a sugar daddy. If you want me to ask around, just let me know,” Taemin offered with a wink, doing his obligatory finger guns, which only resulted in Jonghyun looking over at him in disapproval.

“Who corrupted you like that? Where is my cute little baby cousin who followed me around like a baby duck when he was ten and to whom I was a hero?” Jonghyun questioned dramatically, clutching his chest.

“That little baby cousin grew up, was corrupted by university life and realized that a four year age difference doesn’t make one a hero. Besides I make more money with playing video games part-time than you do with selling records full-time, sorry.”

Taemin shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and pulled a lollipop out of the pocket of his sweatpants, unwrapped it, and stuck it in his mouth with a grin.

“Ouch, that one hit home. Do you see these tears?” Jonghyun pointed at his left eye, squinting several times in hope to summon some tears, the attempt unfortunately unsuccessful. “Those are the tears of a man who realized what kind of a shithead his little cousin is.”

“That’s what little cousins are for,” Taemin beamed, rolling his tongue around the lollipop.

Day 58

“This Youtube video says we have to put these PVC pieces around the wooden box as some kind of puppy rail so Roo can’t squish her babies to death by accident,” Taemin explained casually as he was sitting on the couch with a laptop in his lap, holding up a piece of tube while Jonghyun and Jinki stuck four sheets of one foot by two foot plywood together to build a box, which they had bought at a home improvement center the previous day along with other supplies to make a whelping bed for Roo. Even though it had been Taemin’s idea to build one themselves after they had checked out prices for boxes online, all he did was sit on the couch and watch his cousin and his boyfriend do the work. Roo was lying next to him, even bigger now than she had been before, and wasn’t capable to rest on her tummy anymore, so she lay awkwardly around on her side, her head resting on Taemin’s thigh.

“Well, how about putting the tubes together then, Taemin,” Jonghyun spoke through clenched teeth, being a little annoyed, and constantly stressed and anxious, now that Roo’s pregnancy was in its final stages. He just wanted to make everything perfect for her so her babies would have a nice start in their life.

“How about something more like ‘My dearest Taemin, could you please put the tubes together?’” Taemin teased and looked up at the ceiling as he offered his own suggestion of asking for something.

“Tae, come one, don’t be a dick,” Jinki intervened and looked over at the couch once, making Taemin fall silent within a millisecond. The youngest of the bunch grabbed the tubes to his right with a small pout then, not saying another word, but instead started to put the tubes and the tri-corner connectors together.

“Pfft, it’s scary how you are the only one he still respects.”

“It’s no biggie, you just have to know what gets to him,” Jinki smiled, that flashing smile that had made Jonghyun almost pass out when Taemin had first introduced them to each other several months ago.

“Oh, and what would that be?” Jonghyun asked curiously and arched his eyebrow. When Taemin was still young he had been easily bribed with candy, but Jonghyun feared that this wouldn’t work anymore these days.

They pushed their little self-made box into the corner next to the couch, Jonghyun’s hand gliding over the edges to make sure they had smoothened down everything well enough so Roo and her puppies wouldn’t get hurt.

“Telling him he’s not allowed to fuck me for a week if he acts like a brat in front of people in my presence always works.”

The nonchalance in Jinki’s posture and voice was so astonishing that Jonghyun just stood there for a moment, speechless.

“Hey! Don’t talk about me like I’m not here. I too - have feelings. Also Jinks, what the fuck? Don’t say things like that to my cousin,” Taemin complained loudly, only calming down again when Jinki came over to him and gave him a peck on his forehead.

“You two are gross.”

Jonghyun pulled a face after his initial shock had subsided and images of his little cousin fucking a doctor with a disarming smile had faded.

“Yes, grossly in love,” Taemin grinned radiantly, giving Jinki’s bottom a little tap as the other turned around to walk back to Jonghyun. Ignoring the two lovebirds in his apartment Jonghyun picked up the package of puppy pads, which leaned against the couch and unwrapped it to spread the pads out on the ground of the box. The puppy rail was put inside soon afterward, followed by dozens of old towels Jonghyun neatly laid out around the tubes and the ground so no one would get hurt and everyone was comfy. He swiped away some sweat from his forehead when he was finally done with preparing the box, checking if the little cut-out Jinki had sawn into one of the wooden sheets for Roo to get inside and out, could be closed without any problems.

“Thanks for your help,” he said, at last, relieved he could check off another point on his seemingly endless list of whelping preparations.

“No need to thank me. I’m glad I could help with something that makes the life of this little beauty a little easier,” Jinki smiled and walked back to the couch to kneel down in front of it, cradling Roo’s head gently whose tail immediately started wagging. Interestingly enough she always started to wag her tail whenever she saw Taemin’s boyfriend, but not once had she tried to lick his face. Maybe he wasn’t to her taste.

“She’s not a beauty, she’s a fatty at the moment,” Taemin interjected, raising his hands in defense when both Jonghyun and Jinki shot daggers at him. “I’m just saying, no need to look at me like that,” he added meekly and reached for one of the granola bars lying on the coffee table.

“Your boyfriend is a dumbass, Jinki.”

There was a sigh from Jinki before he looked up, feigning sadness, and replied with “I know.”

Day 63

“I know, baby, I know – I know it hurts, but you are doing so good, baby, so good,” Jonghyun repeated over and over again as he sat next to Roo’s whelping box, hands placed on the top of it, looking inside. Roo lay in it since half an hour and whimpered heartbreakingly, her whole body shaking.

“Is it normal that she’s shaking so hard?” Taemin wondered as he leaned over the box, hands resting on his thighs.

“Yeah, I read that it’s normal, but I’m still worried. What if something goes wrong? What are we supposed to do then?”

Jonghyun was nervous and anxious, more anxious than he had been during his university entrance exam, more anxious than he had been before his first time of having sex, even more anxious than he had been when he had to fire a gun for the first time during his basic training in the military.

“Then we drive to one of the vets who have emergency service,” Jinki tried to reassure him in a soothing voice, standing right next to Taemin.

“I hope she will do well. Her body is just so small, how is she supposed to give birth to puppies all by herself,” Jonghyun continued, feeling like he was close to a panic attack.

“Jonghyun, mother nature has this all planned out. She will be doing great. Many other small dogs before her already whelped a lot of healthy little puppies. Her mom whelped Roo as well.”

Jinki patted Jonghyun’s shoulder now, his words falling on deaf ears as Jonghyun completely ignored him, and just sighed when he looked at his pitiful looking dog.

“Didn’t you say that this vet who found out that Roo is pregnant gave you his number in case you need it? Call him if you are so worried,” Taemin suggested after a moment, Jonghyun looking up at him with big eyes.

“Taemin, it’s past nine pm. A doctor’s job is already hard enough as it is, give that man a break.”

In his panic, Jonghyun didn’t even listen to Jinki’s remark and was instead thankful for his cousin keeping a clear head for once.

“Right, I call him. That’s a brilliant idea, Taemin,” Jonghyun exclaimed and jumped up, Jinki looking at him with his mouth agape while Taemin’s back automatically straightened and a proud smile appeared on his lips.

Jonghyun walked straight towards the kitchen where he had put the card up on his fridge, now pulling the puppy magnet aside to type the number into his phone. There hadn’t been a use of the number before because books and the internet had helped him quite a bit in preparing everything for the big day, but now he was glad that he hadn’t thrown it away. Impatiently he waited for Dr. Kim to pick up his phone as he went back into the living room to check up on his dog.

Dr. Kim picked up after the fourth ring.

“Yes?” the call was answered, the voice on the other line sounding just like Jonghyun remembered it.

“Dr. Kim? This is Kim Jonghyun the owner of Byulroo,” he blurted out, taking a peek at his dog to see that there weren’t any changes since he had left her a minute ago.

“Who?” came the reply and for a second Jonghyun felt hurt that the other had forgotten his name.

“Kim Jonghyun. My dog has been a patient of yours a few weeks ago. You made an ultrasound on her and discovered that she’s pregnant. It’s a Dachshund and –,”

“Yes, sure of course. Byulroo the cute dappled Dachshund and her overly protective daddy. I remember now. I’m sorry,” Dr. Kim apologized, his voice a little livelier now.

“Why are you calling? Are there any complications? Is Byulroo okay?”

The voice on the phone sounded concerned.

“No, yes. I mean no, there aren’t any complications as of now, but I’m worried that there might be, and I’m not sure what to do,” Jonghyun spoke way too quickly, hand rubbing his neck as he walked in circles.

“Well, first of all, you should calm down. She’s not the first dog in history to whelp. Second of all have you checked her temperature regularly in the past few days? Is she already in labor?”

“I did, and no, I don’t think she is but maybe she is? I don’t know - she whines so heartbreakingly. I just want to help her, but I don’t know how,” Jonghyun answered frantically, nibbling on the nail of his thumb. There was a short pause before Jonghyun could hear a long sigh.

“Would you like me to get to your place so I can check on her and assure you that she is fine?”

“You would do that?” Jonghyun’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Yeah, sure. I was only watching Notting Hill for the thousands time anyway. Do you live in Gangseo or did you travel from another district to our clinic?”

“No, no, Gangseo it is. I live close to Banghwa station. I can send you the address in a message if you want,” Jonghyun explained hectically, just wanting his dog to be looked at by a professional. If help was offered, one should accept it. He ignored the confused stares he received from Taemin and Jinki and turned away from them as he gave out some details about his apartment block.

“Okay, I’ll be around in approximately twenty minutes. I just need to change into different clothes and then I’m on my way. See you in a bit,” was the last thing Dr. Kim said and hung up before Jonghyun had even the chance to reply, the connection terminated.

“What was that?” Taemin wanted to know, passing Jonghyun on his way to the couch onto which he flung himself.

“Dr. Kim is coming over. He said it wouldn’t be a problem because he was just watching Notting Hill for the thousands time anyway,” Jonghyun summarized their conversation quickly, Taemin furrowing his eyebrows in response.

“Is he gay?”

“What?” Jonghyun asked back in confusion, Taemin’s question appearing to be completely out of context.

“No straight guy in existence likes Notting Hill,” he claimed confidently, trying to reach the remote control of the TV on the coffee table with his foot.

“Taemin, stop generalizing. No one is automatically gay if they like a certain movie nor are they automatically straight if they don’t,” Jinki exhaled deeply, coming up to Taemin to flick his forehead, the younger one instantly holding his head, sulking. Sometimes Jonghyun wondered whether Jinki used behaviorism practices on his boyfriend without Taemin realizing it. Maybe Jinki trained him to become a human version of Pavlov’s dog.

“You shouldn’t have called that man, Jonghyun. There are emergency services for cases like yours,” Jinki pointed out, and grabbed the remote control on the coffee table to hand it to Taemin after his boyfriend’s sixth attempt of picking it up with his foot had failed.

“He offered,” Jonghyun replied in his defense and lifted both arms, checking up on Roo once again who still whined sadly in her box.

“Because he probably pitied you.”

Jinki walked around the coffee table to sit down next to Taemin who zapped through the channels until he reached one that aired anime. Jonghyun only huffed in response, not willing to discuss his actions with a physician. Just because Jinki wouldn’t want to be called by one of his patients after his shifts were over didn’t mean that others had to be like that.

“Oh my god, can you please stop? You are gross. I’m becoming a father over here and you sit on the couch and make out?”

Jonghyun called out in disgust after he had looked up from Roo and had discovered that Taemin was almost lying in Jinki’s lap and nibbled on the other’s bottom lip with his teeth. With a groan his cousin let go of Jinki again and flopped down next to him, crossing his arms with a pout.

“You are seriously no fun.”

“And you are an ass! I asked you to be here for moral support not for tainting my eyes with images of you getting it on with your boyfriend,” Jonghyun complained, upset over the lack of empathy his cousin showed towards him.

“Sorry, Jonghyun. We didn’t mean to – I’m very sorry,” Jinki intervened apologetically, acting as a peacemaker between the two cousins. Jonghyun didn’t say anything in return, just sat down next to the box, and stroked his dog’s head gently, Roo nestling her face against his palm. He had read that some dogs could get very unsocial when they were about to whelp, but Roo seemed to appreciate Jonghyun’s presence, her tail fawning as he fondled her ears, her little tongue licking his hand.

The doorbell rang about ten minutes later, Jinki volunteering to get the door when Jonghyun wanted to stand up from his place on the floor. Less than twenty seconds after that he came back with a befuddled-looking Dr. Kim who carried a messenger bag in his hand, legs clad in ripped, washed-out blue jeans, and his torso hidden beneath an oversized dusky pink hoodie.

“He’s over there,” Jonghyun heard Jinki say and pointed towards him, Jonghyun lifting his hand when Dr. Kim looked for him.

“Hello there Dr. Kim, I’m sorry for having called you so late in the evening.”

As soon as the words had left his mouth Jonghyun realized that he should have said them on the phone earlier already.

“I’m off-duty, so please call me Kibum otherwise this feels awkward to me,” Dr. Kim – Kibum explained, giving Taemin a little nod as he passed him on his way towards Jonghyun.

“Then please call me Jonghyun.”

They smiled at each other for a moment, the two small dimples Jonghyun had become fond of so quickly, noticeable again.

“And I’m Taemin.”

His cousin’s voice sounded obnoxiously through the room, making Jonghyun and Kibum turn their heads towards the couch where Taemin waved at them with a smile.

“That’s my cousin Taemin. He moved in temporarily to help me with Roo and the puppies, and the one who opened the door is Jinki, Taemin’s partner,” Jonghyun introduced the other two men in the room, Kibum nodding towards each of them again in response.

“Nice to meet you,” he uttered and then turned towards Roo, kneeling down next to the box to take a better look.

“Well, hello there little lady, long time no see. You look as cute as ever,” Kibum said softly, carefully extending his hand into the box to let Roo sniff him. Jonghyun smiled when Roo’s tail began to wag again, and she bumped her snout against his hand as if she remembered him.

“There is definitely more than one puppy inside of her, she’s massive,” he stated his observation towards Jonghyun in a whisper tone, probably not wanting Roo to hear him. Jonghyun thought the sentiment was cute, at least someone who was considerate of his puppy’s feelings.

“I just hope all of them will be healthy,” Jonghyun voiced his concerns, noticing how Roo started licking the vet’s hand eagerly like he had dipped his hand into peanut butter beforehand.

“I’m sure they will be. Do you have a thermometer nearby? I would like to check her temperature.”

Jonghyun nodded and stood up immediately, leaving the living room for a moment to get the thermometer and a tube with lube from the bathroom.

“Hey, Jonghyun said you were watching Notting Hill when he called you. That’s pretty gay.”

Holding the door handle to the bathroom in his hand, Jonghyun halted in his steps, cursing his cousin in his mind for always being so blunt. Didn’t he have a mute button? Or could he at least think before he spoke?

“Well, good to hear that gay stereotypes haven’t died down in the year 2015. So what? I like a kitschy romcom. What are you going to do about it? Shoot me?”

Jonghyun smiled at the tough response, hoping it would finally shut Taemin up.

“No, actually I just wanted to know if you are gay and single because I know of a soon to be a single dad who doesn’t admit it, but is actually really desperate to get laid.”

The secondhand embarrassment Jonghyun felt right then and there almost made it harder for him to breathe, and he shook his head, wondering whether Taemin was really part of his family or if his mom’s sister had picked him up near a trash can twenty-two years ago because all that left his mouth was garbage. Before he had to listen to any more nonsense leaving his cousin’s food hole he walked back into the room and straight to Kibum, pretending like he hadn’t eavesdropped on their conversation as he sat down in silence.

“Here,” Jonghyun said as he gave Kibum the utensils, the other one eyeing the bottle of lube Jonghyun had bought over a year ago at a sex shop with a raised eyebrow for a moment before he looked at Jonghyun who shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

“What? An online article said lubricating the thermometer makes it more comfortable for the dog. It didn’t say what kind of lubricant to use. I already had this at home so why buy something new when I already have something that works perfectly fine?” he justified the presence of anal lubrication and watched Kibum squirt some of the gel onto the tip of the thermometer.

“The answers are yes and yes,” Kibum then said out of nowhere, turning his head towards the couch for a moment. It took Jonghyun a second to figure out what questions the other was referring to, but when it made click he started blushing, watching as the other bend over the box.

“Okay, little lady, this might be cold for a second, but don’t worry, this will be over quickly.”

Kibum’s voice was very gentle while talking to Roo, and Jonghyun was thankful for it, feeling like she was in good hands. Lifting up her tail, Kibum carefully inserted the thermometer into her rectum and waited.

“Is it normal for her to whine constantly?” Jonghyun asked while they waited, folding his hands in his lap.

“For some dogs it is. You have to remember that she doesn’t know what is happening to her. She feels pain in waves and doesn’t know where it’s coming from. Her cervix probably began to dilate a while ago and uterine contractions started. That’s quite a lot for such a small lady,” he explained, pushing his glasses further up his nose. Jonghyun nodded understandingly, feeling even sorrier for his little baby than before.

“Her temperature is currently at 37°C. What temperature did she have the last time you checked?” Kibum inquired after checking the display on the thermometer.

“It was over 38.5°C a few hours ago.”

“I guess we won’t have to wait for long then. The temperature drops when they go into labor.”

Kibum held up the thermometer a little awkwardly, seemingly not really knowing where to put it, so Jonghyun took it back with a smile and stood up, disinfecting and cleaning it in the bathroom sink.

He was nervous because soon his life would change completely. He couldn’t imagine life to be that tough if Roo whelped only one puppy, but what if there were really six puppies? How was he supposed to handle all of them? The fatherhood of the soon to be born puppies was also something that worried him a lot lately. What kind of dog had Roo spent her time with? What if it had been a huge Mastiff? He paused his thought for a moment. Was that possible? Did huge dogs go after small ones or was there a natural barrier that instinctively told them that a little Dachshund lady clearly wasn’t something for a male Mastiff? What if she had made an acquaintance with a Chihuahua? What would the puppies look like then? He should have done better research he realized when he came back into the living room, Jinki and Taemin watching him from the couch, Taemin not leaving him out of sight while taking a big sip from a can of soda.

“What is it?” he wanted to know, Taemin irking him beyond belief today. His cousin only shrugged his shoulders innocently and said “Nothing” taking another obnoxiously loud sip as if he wanted to annoy him even more.

“Taemin and I thought we should get some food from Domino’s before it closes for today. Are you up for that?” Jinki questioned, his head leaning against Taemin’s shoulder.

“Yeah sure, why not,” Jonghyun replied casually, seeing Taemin do a little triumphant fist bump. At least his cousin was useful for something and made sure they all ate regularly, even if it was just junk food.

Roo was standing on all fours when Jonghyun came back to her whelping box, panting heavily, her whole body shaking as she tore at the blankets beneath her with her teeth.

“What is she doing?” he asked worriedly as he sat back down, Kibum having moved over to lean against the wall with his back.

“She’s agitated. That’s normal, don’t worry. She doesn’t know what to do with the pain so she tries to release the stress she feels by tearing at things,” the vet let him know, Jonghyun noticing the prints of Kermit the frog’s face on Kibum’s socks.

“Those are cute,” he pointed out, distracted for a moment. Kibum looked down at himself and grinned when he understood what Jonghyun was talking about, wiggling his toes in response.

“I like cute things.”

“I’m not sure if you have noticed yet, but our Jonghyun here is super darn cute, also super sof –,” the rest of Taemin’s statement was muffled by Jinki’s hand who covered his mouth until the younger one bit into it, resulting in Jinki waving his hand around in pain, swearing under his breath.

“I mean like marshmallow soft. He cries during animal documentaries and squeals whenever he sees a puppy. He also makes these little wiggly motions with his body whenever he’s excited. If you look up the word cute on Wikipedia there is a photo of him displayed next to the definition,” Taemin added hastily, not shutting his mouth to take a deep breath for one second, and moving his body on the couch around swiftly so Jinki had no chance of muting him. His hair was tousled and his cheeks flushed when he was done, Jinki finally getting a hold of him to keep him away from making further comments.

Jonghyun wavered between wanting to die in shame and complete rage and threw the next best thing he could find – the lube – at Taemin’s head and missed him by at least a meter, the tube landing next to the couch instead.

“Shut up and order food, you nitwit,” he grumbled, wanting to hide his face behind his hands when he heard Kibum laugh exhilarated next to him.

“Oh, let him be. He’s quite the character,” Kibum grinned, running a hand through his black hair.

“Thank you! At least someone in this room who grants me my freedom of speech,” Taemin huffed, nudging Jinki with his elbow before he grabbed his phone from the table.

“I don’t know why he’s like that, I’m sorry if he makes you feel uncomfortable,” Jonghyun apologized in Taemin’s stead, Kibum shaking his head with a smile.

“I’m good, don’t worry. Besides he’s right, you are cute,” Kibum said a little lower so only Jonghyun could hear it, the tips of Jonghyun’s ears catching fire. He coughed and then turned his gaze back to Roo, not really knowing what he was supposed to say to that. He hadn’t expected his puppy’s doctor to hit on him out of nowhere if that’s what it was.

“Do you have disposable gloves and bags?”

“For the placenta,” Kibum added when Jonghyun looked at him puzzled, still trying to think of a response to the compliment he had been given.

“Yeah sure, one second.”

Jonghyun came back quickly from the kitchen, placing the asked items and even more towels on the floor next to them before he leaned against the wall behind him, waiting.

“Okay, I added the usual to our order. L sized crusty cheese with chicken, sweet potato, bacon, mushrooms, and cheddar cheese on top, and as side dishes chicken fingers, some fries, and a big bottle of coke. Sounds good?”

Taemin lifted his head from his phone and looked around for any complaints.

“Do you want to add something, Kibum?” Jonghyun asked politely, his legs pulled up to his chest, and his head resting on his knees.

“Do they have salads?”

Taemin looked horrified at the mentioning of the word salad, and both Jinki and Jonghyun started snickering.

“So they don’t sell salads at Domino’s or what is so funny about my question?” Kibum asked warily, pulling on one sleeve of his hoodie.

“Oh, they do. But Taemin is convinced that a salad is something only animals should eat. He loves meat quite a lot,” Jonghyun explained with a smirk.

“They sell two, a plain one and one with uhm – cranberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, and brown rice in it,” Jinki contributed to their discussion after fetching Taemin’s phone who was reluctant to look for anything that didn’t involve meat as a basic ingredient.

“The second one sounds nice.”

“Okay, it’s added to the list,” Jinki smiled, sending off their order with a press of his thumb.

Jonghyun scratched his neck as he tried to think of something to say, the whelping box standing between him and his dog’s vet. He wasn’t particularly skilled in the flirting department and even holding hands with a person he fancied made him blush and giggle shyly on a regular basis. Also, if he was very honest, he hadn’t even seen any potential in Kibum. Not to say Kibum wasn’t attractive because he was, but Roo was always Jonghyun’s priority so he put himself second naturally. Kibum had come to his apartment to help Roo with giving birth to her puppies, and not to flirt with her owner. Unlike Taemin, Jonghyun didn’t walk around asking everyone if there were single and interested in men, he was more subtle than that, more sensitive. But maybe this sensitivity was the reason why Jonghyun had been single for almost two years now while Taemin had a boyfriend, a very good-looking and nice one on top of that. It probably was all a matter of perspective.

“Hey, it was uhm – really nice of you to come here on such short notice. Especially at this hour,” Jonghyun eventually uttered tentatively, pulling his hoodie over his knees.

“It’s okay. Really. I love puppies.”

There was that dimpled smile again that made Kibum look so kind and friendly.

“Speaking of puppies, where are yours?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Jonghyun saw Taemin stand up and walk towards the bathroom while Jinki was sprawled out on the couch, playing around on his phone. Though he was thankful for having company on such an important day, Jinki and Taemin weren’t of much help but more a nuisance, eating his snacks, drinking his beverages, occupying his couch. On top of that, they also dared to parade around their relationship, Taemin clearly showing his boyfriend off every chance he got. Wasn’t that unfair and cruel, considering that Jonghyun was a hopeless single? On the other hand Jonghyun wasn’t too sure if he wouldn’t act the exact same way if he had a partner. He’d probably dance salsa around Taemin with a rose stuck between his teeth on a daily basis, waving around tiny flags with the name of his significant other written on it.

“My monsters are at home. They are big boys and can handle to be alone for a few hours. That’s no problem. They are quite a handful, so I don’t think it would have been a good idea to bring them with me. It would probably have been too overwhelming for that little lady here.”

Kibum’s smile was pretty; graceful and charming just as the rest of his face, Jonghyun thought as he concentrated back on the doctor, giving him his undivided attention. Quick-witted, funny, obviously smart, charming, very handsome, and most importantly animal-loving – that’s what probably would have been written beneath a profile picture of Kibum on Grindr. But Kibum didn’t look like someone who was in need of finding a date online, let alone on a site that was known to be one that was used for finding a quick lay rather than true love.

Time progressed slowly, Taemin impatiently waiting for their delivery to arrive and Jonghyun hoping for Roo to start her final stage of labor, the dog switching back and forth between tearing the insides of her whelping box apart and lying on her side, panting worryingly. Seeing the condition of his precious dog stressed Jonghyun out because even though he wanted to, there was nothing he could do to help her. Kibum tried his best to reassure him that Roo was doing a good job and that her behavior was absolutely normal but his words only comforted him temporarily, every whine having him on his tiptoes.

Their food arrived eventually, and Taemin moonwalked the way through the apartment and to the door in excitement, waving bills around like a rich pimp. When he came back with the food he danced like a leprechaun who had found a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, placing everything on the coffee table while singing a made-up song about chicken fingers and pizza. Despite finding him incredibly annoying at times, Taemin had great entertainment value and lifted the tensed atmosphere in the room at least during dinner time. Sitting on the floor around the coffee table the four of them shared their ordered food, Jinki and Kibum sharing stories about their daily life as doctors after Jinki had come out as a urologist, and Taemin had casually told Kibum how much dick his boyfriend got to see on a daily basis.

Jonghyun stayed silent throughout their dinner, always shooting glances at the box in the corner to see if there were any changes in Roo’s behavior while nibbling on a few fries. He felt way too anxious to have a real appetite.

At eleven there was still no sign of Roo whelping any puppies soon, so Jinki took his leave since he had to work early the next morning, Taemin not wanting to let go of him for solid ten minutes and hanging on his body like a sloth. Only when Jinki promised to take him out for dinner to his favorite Jokbal restaurant on his next day off did Taemin appear propitiated, slinging his arms around Jinki’s neck to kiss him and wish him a safe trip home.

“You really don’t need to stay here. It’s almost twelve by now,” Jonghyun said towards Kibum after another hour of waiting impatiently, both sitting next to the box again, playing cards while Taemin had fallen asleep on the couch with an opened bag of potato chips in his arms. Admittedly, Kibum had told them that tomorrow was his at-home day, but Jonghyun still felt bad for keeping an almost stranger from going home to sleep just because he was worried about his puppy.

“It’s okay. I’m already here and I want to know what the puppies are going to look like,” he reassured with that cute dimple smile, taking a sip from his energy drink, the other hand holding a handful of UNO cards.

“Really – thank you. I owe you,” Jonghyun said with a smile as he played a red six, his lips turning into a pout as soon as Kibum played a black card which coerced him to draw four playing cards from the stack between them.

“So-,” Kibum began candidly as Jonghyun sorted the cards on his hands. “How long have you been single?”

The question caught Jonghyun off guard, and he fumbled with his cards, afraid of letting them slip through his fingers.

“Quite some time,” he admitted coyly and cleared his throat. “What color do you want?”

“Yellow,” Kibum announced and straightened up a bit, rolling his shoulders one by one.

“That’s quite surprising.”

“What is?” Jonghyun asked as he tossed a yellow nine onto the pile of cards.

“You being single for quite some time. I always thought people who own dogs don’t have any problem in that area. Dogs are people magnets,” Kibum explained coolly, playing another ‘take four cards’ which caused the instant return of a pout on Jonghyun’s face.

“Are you talking from experience?”

Jonghyun turned his gaze towards the whelping box instantly when Roo’s panting suddenly intensified, the small dog lying on its side, a small greyish sac hanging out of her vulva.

“It’s happening,” Jonghyun squeaked in shock, throwing his cards aside to kneel in front of the box with wide eyes, his heartbeat rocketing at the thought that the first pup might be delivered soon. Kibum followed him suit – less hectic – and kneeled next to the box, taking a closer look at Roo’s rear.

“There is the head already, good girl,” he cooed while Jonghyun felt nauseous all of a sudden, the fries he had earlier, churning in his stomach.

“What – what are we going to do now?”

Jonghyun felt stomach acid rising in his gullet, the sight of his puppy giving birth a little too much to handle. He had watched videos of Dachshunds giving birth in preparation for this moment but seeing it in real life was overwhelming, especially since it was his own dog whelping right now and not some unknown dog on YouTube.

“We aren’t going to do anything, Jonghyun. Just try to calm down, okay?”

Kibum’s voice was soothing and all of a sudden the other’s hand was on his neck, massaging his skin gently.

“Roo is doing well. She knows what she’s doing by instinct. She’s a clever lady, don’t worry.”

Jonghyun nodded halfheartedly, the massage really helping him to relax. His hands were sweaty and he ran them over his sweatpants over and over again, eyes fixed on the events in front of him.

“Just push a little more, little lady. You can do it. You are almost there.”

Kibum’s motivational speech was contagious, so Jonghyun joined him in encouraging Roo, both of them telling her to keep pushing in whispers, the little Dachshund wiggling around as more and more of her offspring surfaced. It wasn’t the most tasteful sight to witness as there were too many unidentifiable fluids involved that made the soon to be father sick to his stomach.

But before Jonghyun knew what was happening the first puppy was out, still wrapped in a thin membrane, making it almost look like an alien from a sci-fi movie. It took Roo a moment before she started eagerly licking the newborn, freeing it from its protection and helping it to start breathing. She looked like she had done this plenty of times before, sniffing her pup, nibbling on the cord that still connected the puppy to the placenta which had slipped out right after the puppy had been born.

“Good girl.”

Kibum’s voice sounded far away as Jonghyun fought with tears, feeling them bubbling up, his heart warm and light, pride washing over him when he realized what miracle he had witnessed.

“It’s so beautiful,” he rasped with a smile, the first tear rolling down his cheek, fingers clinging to the box, shaking. Roo commendably licked her baby and nudged it with her snout, the little pup wet and still helpless, lying around with its eyes closed.

“It is, isn’t it? A new life coming into the world right in front of our eyes.”

Jonghyun barely nodded in response, tears blurring his vision, and even though he didn’t want to he started sobbing wholeheartedly in front of a stranger who probably thought he was insane for getting so emotional over his dog giving birth.

“I’m so proud of you, baby. You are doing so well,” he praised through tears, snuffling, and pulled one sleeve of his sweater over his hand to wipe his tears while the other reached out to carefully stroke Roo’s head who looked up at him and gave his palm a short lick. That gentle gesture made his tears flow even more relentlessly, and he started chuckling at his own sentiment, too overjoyed by this pure moment. He wanted to pick her up and press her close to his chest, but knowing that she was still in the middle of labor he refrained from doing so and settled for the continuous patting of her head.

“Let’s check if it’s a boy or a girl, okay?”

Jonghyun had almost forgotten about the doctor’s presence when his voice pulled him back to reality, the sound of latex gloves slipping over fingers piquing his interest. At first, Kibum removed the slimy placenta from the whelping box and stuffed it into a plastic bag which Jonghyun was thankful for because the mere thought of touching it made him want to throw up. Then he gently picked up the small puppy that was barely the size of his palm and very dark in color and turned it around on its back, the small dog constantly calling for its mom in a high-pitched voice.

“It’s a boy,” Kibum smiled and stroked the puppy’s belly, Jonghyun taking a closer look at the small dog himself, delighted by the tiny Mohawk on the puppy’s head.

“He looks adorable.”

“Do you want to hold him?” Kibum asked then, Jonghyun extending his hands carefully with an eager nod, surprised how fragile and light the puppy felt in his hands. There was a feeling of wanting to protect the puppy from all evil in the world arising in Jonghyun as soon as he held him, his thumbs cautiously touching his small head and tiny paws.

“I won’t let anything bad happen to you, okay? I promise you that. We are a family now.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm so sorry, but I had to add a third chapter to this story. The reason for this is that I wanted to finish this story before I leave for Music Bank, but I didn't manage to do that. So I hope no one won't jump at my throat for adding a third chapter. But the third one will be really the last one! I promise! 
> 
> Warnings: Visits at the vet, including vaccinations which involve syringes. Language (a lot of cussing, mainly directed at Taemin's character - no surprise here)
> 
> Thanks again to the people who commented on the first chapter and motivated me to actually finish this. This means a lot to me. ♡

**Day 99**

 

“Naruto no, no – stop biting my toe, you little devil,” Taemin whined as he sat on the floor with outstretched legs, Roo’s first born puppy jumping around his feet, biting his big toe with a growl whenever Taemin started wiggling it.

 

“It’s your own fault for always wanting to play puppy fight with him,” Jinki laughed as he lounged on the couch, having little Ponyo in his arms, the smallest and quietest out of the bunch of four puppies Roo had whelped a little over five weeks ago.

 

“He’s surrounded by girls only, so Naruto needs someone he can play rough with before he starts tackling his younger sisters to the ground. It’s not like he’s hurting me with his puppy teeth – it’s just incredibly annoying,” Taemin explained, flinching when the tiny teeth of the small dog got him and gnawed at his toe as if it was a piece of sausage.

 

The four puppies had tripled in size since their birth, becoming quite a handful after they had started to stand up and take their first steps two weeks ago. Roo had turned out to be the perfect mother, making sure that her puppies were all fed and well groomed throughout the day. Even Taemin had proved to be the right choice as a partner in crime, having fallen in love with the puppies as soon as he had seen them the next morning after waking up from his comatose sleep.

 

“How do I look?”

 

Jinki, as well as Taemin, looked up when Jonghyun exited his bedroom and smoothened his rather colorful looking button-up shirt.

 

“Like someone who wants to get laid,” Taemin pointed out while keeping a straight face, merely shrugging his shoulders when Jonghyun tried to murder him with his eyes.

 

“That’s more color than you have been wearing in the last half year combined. Is it new?”

 

Taemin picked the little devil to his feet up when Naruto attempted to bite his toe for the sixth time and cuddled the little puppy with its black fur and brown paws who started licking his cheek eagerly as soon as Taemin brought him closer to his face.

 

“Yeah, well no. I got it at a designer thrift shop. I thought Kibum might like it. He likes flowers and designer stuff,” Jonghyun explained, voice softening at the end of his sentence when he realized that his explanation would only feed into his cousin’s continuous mocking.

 

“Jonghyunnie is in love…Jonghyunnie is in love…Jonghyunnie is in love,” Taemin called out in a sing-song, holding Naruto up and making his little paws dance in small waves.

 

“I’m not in love. Stop being ridiculous, I’m not a teenager. Kibum is just a nice guy, that’s all,” Jonghyun tried to defend himself with a small offended pout, going over to the whelping box to take a look at his precious princesses Mikasa, Mononoke and of course Roo who huddled together in the soft blankets he had laid out, the small puppies sleeping close to their mother’s belly.

 

“Oh come on, you get all dressed up for a walk with your dog at night with a guy who is just nice? Stop talking nonsense. I know you too well,” Taemin continued teasing, sticking out his tongue when Jonghyun kicked him with his foot.

 

“You two match well, Jonghyun. That’s your seventh dog walking date, right?” Jinki chimed in, getting up from the couch to put little Ponyo back into the whelping box.

 

“It’s the sixth time, and it’s not a date. We just happen to both have dogs who need to go out for walks. Also, Roo seems to like Kibum’s dogs. It’s good if she has some four-legged friends to play around with. She deserves a break from motherhood every now and then. Raising puppies is exhausting,” Jonghyun played down his meet-ups with Kibum. They had been the others’ suggestion after all, so why was he the one who had to justify his actions?

 

“It’s adorable how you try to deny your crush by pretending that Roo is the only reason for you to meet up with that hot doctor.”

 

Taemin leaned away with a video game inspired defense move when Jonghyun tried to kick him again and looked up triumphantly when he succeeded.

 

“There is nothing to deny. We are just puppy friends, that’s all!” Jonghyun talked himself into a rage, kneeling down next to the whelping box to carefully wake Roo up. She needed the little exercise even though most of their walks were spent by sitting on park benches.

 

“Why did you ask how you are looking then?”

 

This was Taemin’s final attack in his personal real life adaption of the video game Mortal Kombat, the knife in Jonghyun stomach turning around painfully, the line “Fatality” popping up above his head. He only replied with “Shut up, Tae,” before he helped Roo into her little, red harness, ignoring every other comment his cousin made.

 

***

 

“That’s a cute shirt,” Kibum complimented with a smile after Jonghyun and he had greeted each other with a hug at their usual spot in front of the north gate of their favorite park, his dogs being completely over Roo who was always a little shy at first and hid behind Jonghyun’s legs to observe the situation from a safe spot.

 

“Thank you,” Jonghyun replied confidently but was screaming on the inside. Kibum looked incredibly cute in his dark blue dungarees and the red-white striped long-sleeve he wore underneath. He was tempted to tell Kibum how adorable he looked but felt too embarrassed to do so. They had been tiptoeing around each other for weeks now, with Kibum showing up at his place every other day to check on the newborn puppies, to Jonghyun inviting him over for dinner as a thank you for being such a good sport and assisting a complete stranger during the birth of his beloved dog’s puppies. Kibum didn’t miss an opportunity to flirt with him but it never went beyond a casual compliment, an ambiguous comment, or a brief touch of his knee or arm, and it was unnerving because Jonghyun couldn’t bring himself to be proactive.

 

Jonghyun hadn’t even wanted to develop any kind of feelings for Kibum that went beyond friendship but here he was, his heart skipping a beat whenever Kibum smiled at him. He felt like a student in middle school all over again, crushing on his extremely attractive PE teacher.

 

“Hey there, young lady. How are we feeling today? How is motherhood treating you, huh? You look very beautiful tonight,” Kibum cooed after kneeling down, craning his neck to take a look at Roo, his hand holding his own dogs on a short leash so they wouldn’t overwhelm the young mother with their excitement.

 

“Naruto is exhausting her quite a bit and I’m waiting for the day she’s going to snap at him but the other three aren’t giving her a hard time yet,” Jonghyun answered for his puppy, looking in awe how Roo carefully stepped forward to nudge her snout against Kibum’s knee. How could he not develop feelings for Kibum, if he always spoke so lovingly to Roo? It was an impossible task. He treated her like a princess, the way everyone should treat her.

 

“I still can’t believe that you named your puppies after anime characters, you nerd,” Kibum laughed, gently fondling Roo behind her ears while Jonghyun moved over to greet Kibum’s puppies with some generous back scratches.

 

“Says the one who named his puppies after a fashion brand, you fashion victim.”

 

“Touché.”

 

The two of them smiled at each other until Jonghyun felt too awkward to hold the other’s gaze and looked away, taking Commes Des face into both hands instead to ruffle his fur, making kissy faces at him, and talking to him in a baby voice.

 

They took their usual route through the park, Roo slowly starting to relax around Kibum’s dogs and trying to keep up with their pace, her much shorter legs making this task a little hard on her. Kibum talked about his day and Jonghyun about his, meaningless chit-chat that kept them up to date with each other’s life but didn’t let them know anything of value.

 

Jonghyun would have been lying if he insisted that it didn’t bother him because all their meetups went like that, an exchange of banalities between mere acquaintances. If they didn’t talk about their work life they talked about their dogs and even though Jonghyun loved nothing more in life than talking about his beloved treasures, it didn’t satisfy his desire to pick someone’s brain, to get to the core of things.

 

Every attempt he made in getting to know Kibum better by asking more personal questions was met with superficial, standardized answers and followed by a change of topic, a behavior Jonghyun had a hard time interpreting. He could have straight up asked Kibum if he had any interest in meeting up in a different setting without their dogs for once but he was reluctant to do so, overthinking his feelings for Kibum too much. An average, normal thinking single man his age would probably have just invited Kibum to some drinks in a bar, get him a little tipsy to have a sloppy make-out session with him later that would hopefully have led to a hookup by the end of the night.

 

Would have, _would have, would have…_

 

The thing was Jonghyun was by no means normal, and while other guys didn’t look further than the tip of their noses, Jonghyun was already far ahead in his mind, thinking about what kind of interior he would like Kibum’s and his future home to have, and how high their chances were of adopting a child. Jonghyun didn’t live for the moment, he wanted things to be planned out and structured before he committed to anything. Because if he committed to something he did it wholeheartedly; no shortcuts, no turn backs, no emergency exits.

 

“It’s chilly tonight, isn’t it?”

 

Kibum looked incredibly pretty as his gaze wandered up to the sky, Jonghyun wanting to peck his cute button nose and tug a strand of black hair behind his ear, too occupied with admiring how the light of the streetlamps enhanced Kibum’s features as to react to his statement.

 

“Is everything alright?”

 

Jonghyun was startled when Kibum turned his head toward him, watching him expectantly.

 

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Jonghyun replied hastily, scratching the back of his neck. “I just, I just thought about - stuff.”

 

“Stuff?”

 

Kibum lifted one of his eyebrows curiously, the one with the scar in it. Jonghyun really wanted to touch it, just once, wanted to know what the scar tissue would feel like beneath the pads of his fingers.

 

“Yeah, stuff – world politics, the current situation in – Israel and Palestine,” Jonghyun lied, his left hand feeling sweaty as it held onto Roo’s leash, his dog trotting closely next to him, the size of her body having almost shrunken down to its state before her pregnancy.

 

“I see, are you interested in politics?”

 

“I think everyone should be.”

 

All of a sudden Jonghyun felt uncomfortable when all he received in response was a hum, and he wanted to take his words back, realizing that politics weren’t really something one should discuss on a warm summer night while walking one’s dogs. He could have said that he thought that Kibum looked very handsome tonight but he didn’t, instead, he watched Roo who tried her best to follow him in silence.

 

Doubt overcame him, doubt that falling for Kibum might have been a bad idea, doubt that the two of them might be just too different in their lifestyles and views on the world. Besides if Kibum had any real interest in him that went beyond friendship he could have invited Jonghyun out as well. But he hadn’t. Kibum was the more outgoing one of them so in that very moment Jonghyun decided to not do anything about this situation at all and would wait for the other to do something about it if he wanted to instead.

 

**Day 105**

 

“You won’t believe who I found on Grindr just now,” Taemin exclaimed, rushing into Jonghyun’s bedroom like Speedy Gonzales on a Sunday afternoon. It was 35°C with a humidity percentage of 80% and Jonghyun had decided to hide himself in his room to endure the heat, curtains closed, and his body merely clad in shorts as he lay sprawled out like a starfish face down on his bed. He refused to turn on the air conditioner because it cost too much and he was still a single dad with a lousy job who had a family to feed, so he had placed an electric fan on his nightstand instead, sighing deeply whenever a whiff of air brushed over his shoulders and down his back. He hated heat, he hated summer, and he hated his cousin for just entering his room without knocking.

 

“This room has a door that was closed. How about knocking for once?” Jonghyun complained, whining when Taemin threw himself onto his back and rested his legs on either side of his hips.

 

“I knew you wouldn’t be jacking off. It’s too hot to even lift a finger let alone to tame one’s Wiener, so stop whining like a pubescent teen who feels like their privacy was intruded,” Taemin replied nonchalantly. “Anyway, so about Grindr.”

 

“Why are you using Grindr? Does Jinki know about this? Did you two fight?”

 

Jonghyun turned on his back to get a better look at his cousin who held his phone in both hands and looked at its screen.

 

“Pfft….no, all is well. We just have a little bet going on. We just want to check who would get the most opportunities for a hookup within a span of 72hours. You have no idea how many men in their 30s and 40s want to get fucked by a twink like me. Guys like me seem to be high in demand.”

 

The way Taemin talked could have given someone the impression that he was just talking about grocery shopping, and once again Jonghyun wondered where his younger cousin whose cheeks used to turn pink by the mere mentioning of the word sex had disappeared to. It had been a nice and innocent time when Taemin had just discovered internet porn at age fifteen and had taken him aside at his mom’s birthday party to ask him a little sheepishly what the tags ‘ _bukkake_ ’ and ‘ _glory hole_ ’ on Pornhub meant. Jonghyun had almost choked on his soda back then, but now he missed those times, quite sure that Taemin knew way more about internet porn than Jonghyun ever had.

 

“You two are the weirdest couple I’ve ever encountered.”

 

“I take this as a compliment,” Taemin grinned and leaned a little back to take a photo of Jonghyun’s chest before he was pushed aside.

 

“What the fuck, Tae,” Jonghyun grumbled with a deep frown, crossing his arms in front of his chest, feeling molested by his own kin.

 

“I just took your profile photo, so be thankful. You shouldn’t hide all this beneath your baggy clothes. If you want to get laid, looking all petit and cute is not the way to go, man.”

 

Taemin sat down cross-legged on the mattress, the soft tapping of thumbs on the screen of his phone making Jonghyun nervous.

 

“First of all I don’t want to get laid – and second of all not by some horndog on Grindr. Users on this site are only looking for hookups – preferably with foreigners.”

 

Sitting up, Jonghyun watched Taemin warily who seemed too occupied with his cell phone to care much about his complaints.

 

“You might change your mind if you see this profile,” he said instead and held the phone right into his cousin’s face. Jonghyun blinked at first due to the brightness of the screen and it took his eyes a moment to adjust, but when the blurry lines in front of him finally sharpened, he saw a very artistic close up of someone’s face, heart-shaped glasses sitting on their nose, lips glistening as they sucked on a lollipop. He knew those lips, he knew that nose, he knew those eyes, and he certainly knew that small scar in one of those eyebrows.

 

“That can’t be,” Jonghyun gasped in disbelief and clicked through the gallery of photos in the profile he was shown. To his misfortune, the guy lazing around on a beach chair in bright orange shorts, and the guy playing fetch with two toy poodles in the park was most definitely Kim Kibum; his vet and current crush.

 

“Our Bummie here likes them tall and muscular. I mean we can put you into high heels,” Taemin grinned mischievously, letting go of his phone when Jonghyun tried to snatch it from him.

 

 _Le seul vrai langage au monde est un baiser_ , read the headline of his self-introduction and listed below were his age, height, weight, and preferences.

 

“Our twinkie vet here seems to be a little hoe who knows French,” Taemin smiled brightly as if he had just made someone a compliment and fished his cell phone out of Jonghyun’s grasp.

 

“I already started making a profile for you. Should we be honest and say you are about 171cm on a good day or lie a little and put in 177cm instead. I mean you often wear boots with small heels and people are generally taller in the morning…so -,” pursing his lips, Taemin sat there, expectant while Jonghyun was still processing the fact that the guy he went onto regular dog dates with had a profile on the world’s biggest hookup site for gay men. Jonghyun wasn’t even sure why this fact surprised him to the extent it did.

 

“Tae, for the last time – I’m not joining this site. Especially not for Kibum. If I want to send him a shot of my naked chest I can just do so in Kakao Talk, no need for a dating app,” Jonghyun replied, being a little agitated.

 

“Then why haven’t you done that yet?”

 

“Done what?”

 

“Sent him a photo of your chocolaty glory. Puppy dates are cute and wholesome and all. But seriously you want the D, don’t you?” Taemin wiggled his brows suggestively which lead to Jonghyun looking at him in disgust. He shook his head vigorously and held up his hands in protest, not wanting to hear his younger cousin talk about sex in such a casual manner. What was wrong with his generation?

 

He sighed before he sank back down on his mattress and begged:

 

“Tae, can you just close your food hole for a bit? An hour or so? You are giving me a headache. Not everyone’s mind revolves around copulating 24/7. Just let me rest for a bit, the pups have kept me awake all night. It’s your turn to change the puppy pads anyway – so, just go – please.”

 

“I just wanted to do you a favor.”

 

Taemin moped noticeably after being rejected, looking like his childhood-self for a moment; squishy cheeks and big disappointed eyes included. He got up from Jonghyun’s bed and shuffled toward the bedroom door with sagging shoulders, leaving the room with a mumbled: “Man, you are so uptight.”

 

As soon as the door was closed Jonghyun felt himself relax again, the tension in his muscles leaving as he buried his face into the pillow and closed his eyes. But this was only the silence before the storm and not even five minutes later his phone started beeping, announcing several incoming messages. Like an old man who wanted to get up from his favorite, worn-out armchair he huffed as he stretched out his arm to reach his cellphone lying on his nightstand, the screen displaying Kibum’s name.

 

_Kibum >> I don’t know why your cousin just sent me a photo of your chest…_

_Kibum >> Did you lose a bet?_

_Kibum >> Was he bored?_

_Kibum >> Quite surprising though…_

_Kibum >> Is that really yours?_

 

Jonghyun’s throat felt as if a cord was gradually tightened around it when he saw Kibum type another message, his cheeks flashing up pink when a new text popped up on the screen five seconds later.

 

_Kibum >> Looks hot. _

 

“Taemin, I fucking hate you,” he yelled at the top of his lungs only to receive a mischievous, evil villain laugh in return that came from the living room. A desperate whine left his lips and he looked at his phone, having no idea what to respond. ‘Haha, yeah…I’m aware of that’ would probably have come across as arrogant and not very appropriate, but a mere ‘Thank you’ didn’t feel right either. There was also the option of pretending that he had no idea what Kibum was talking about, but where was the point in that?

 

_Jonghyun >>You are grounded! Changing puppy pads and cleaning up little accidents for the next two weeks for you!_

 

He wrote Taemin in a quick message first, adding every angry looking emoji he could find to the message before he switched to Kibum’s chat window, eyes hovering over the words ‘Looks hot.’

 

What was he supposed to reply to such a statement? There was no possibility for a witty reply that wouldn’t make him look like a douche. Eventually, he decided to type out a humongous message that would have forced Kibum to scroll down, but when Jonghyun reread it for any typos he deleted it again with a pained expression on his face caused by secondhand embarrassment and instead he simply typed a short _“Sorry, my cousin is an idiot”._

 

Two messages came in simultaneously after that, one that read “ _We should go swimming sometime”_ and the other said “ _You can’t make me! I’m a grown-up! I’m not collecting your puppies’ poo-poo_! You are the dad, I’m just the cool uncle! Me = fun, You =  poo-poo! "

 

Jonghyun panicked after reading the first one and ignored the contents of the second one when he quickly sent the following message “ _Tae fuck, you need to teach me how to swim!”_

 

**Day 108**

 

“Man, sorry to break it to you, but you look ridiculous. That helpless puppy crawl won’t get you into anyone’s pants,” was Taemin’s destructive verdict a few days later as he sat at the edge of a pool, legs in the water, hair dripping wet. Jonghyun who was still in the water held onto a neon pink swimming noodle, able to stand up straight in the shallower part of the pool in his black swimming trunks.

 

“You are not of much help. I should have taken Jinki with me instead of you,” he muttered, hating how the chlorine burnt in his eyes.

 

“And risk getting a nosebleed and attract sharks from seeing my boyfriend in swimming trunks? No, thanks,” Taemin talked shit while Jonghyun looked after a child who appeared to be around nine and passed him in a graceful butterfly.

 

“Don’t be a dick, Taem. Just tell me what to do! How do I not look like an idiot while swimming?”

 

“Just – don’t swim, I guess,” Taemin shrugged and held up his hands when Jonghyun splashed water at him angrily. It was embarrassing enough to stand in the flatter part of the pool with kids and their mothers surrounding them, so he didn’t need his cousin to rub more salt into the wound.

 

“What? Just lend him a hand in the locker room and he won’t be thinking about swimming anymore.”

 

Even when Jonghyun glared at him, Taemin smiled back impishly, adding a: "It’s a valid suggestion!”

 

“Is there anything else in your head other than just sex lately?” Jonghyun wondered candidly, wading through the water until he reached his cousin. Taemin looked deep in thought for a moment, eyes cast towards the sky before he shook his head with a frown, then stopped with a hum, waited, lifted a finger and pursed his lips.

 

“Maybe food,” he pondered and in return, an exhausted, defeated sigh left Jonghyun’s lips.

 

“Of course!” Jonghyun rolled his eyes and lifted himself up and out of the water, his swimming trunks making a squishing sound when he settled down onto the white tiles.

 

“Just tell him you can’t swim. What’s the big deal?”

 

“Taemin, I’m twenty-seven and don’t know how to swim,” he gestured around, watching a little girl who splashed around in a swimming hoop and had the time of her life, entertaining everyone in the pool with her adorable loud cackle.

 

“But dude, you are also twenty-seven and a total catch. I doubt Kibum will turn around on his heels and tell you to fuck off when you tell him you can’t swim.”

 

Taemin patted his knee encouragingly, a gesture so atypical for him that Jonghyun eyed him skeptically, waiting for him to come down on him like a ton of brick stones.

 

“On the other hand, maybe you shouldn’t tell him. Just think about it for a second!  If you are about to drown in the deeper water, he can rescue you – Rescue breathing, if you know what I mean,” Taemin pointed out with a creepy looking wiggle of his brows, nudging Jonghyun so excessively that it started to hurt his ribs. As expected his cousin wasn’t able to shut up but thought he was supportive in his own twisted way.

 

“It’s good to know that you want me to risk my life, so you can see some cheesy Korean drama plotline unfold in real life,” Jonghyun replied, unfazed, his feet drawing circles in the water.

 

“But it would be such a cool story to tell, just think about it,” Taemin insisted and in the next moment he hopped into the water, tugging on Jonghyun’s leg, wanting him to follow him inside.

 

“Come on, you won’t learn how to swim by just sitting there.”

 

**Day 109**

 

“I still don’t think it’s a big deal that he has a profile on Grindr. I mean, maybe he doesn’t use it anymore, or he just uses it to make friends,” Jinki said with a mouth full of fried noodles when Taemin, Jonghyun and he sat at on Jonghyun’s couch the following day, eating Chinese take away food while watching a documentary about the Amazonas on Netflix.

 

“Making friends on Grindr? You are smart as fuck, but also just as naïve,” Taemin replied flippantly, side-eyeing his boyfriend. He sat cross-legged between Jinki and his cousin, holding a plastic container with braised beef and rice in his hands. 

 

“Anyway, I think it’s ridiculous that you stopped replying to his messages after I showed you his profile. Why did we go to the pool if you don’t intend on seeing him again?”

 

Taemin looked at Jonghyun now who had a hard time protecting his dinner consisting of chicken breast and rice from Naruto and Mononoke who were all over him, scrambling over and under his arms with little, needy puppy yelps.

 

“I just feel like he lied to me. He seemed like such a nice guy and now I don’t know what to think anymore,” Jonghyun tried to explain, gently pushing the two little troublemakers next to him away and envying Jinki’s spot on the couch who could peacefully eat his dinner while Ponyo and Mikasa snuggled together next to his thigh, sound asleep. Roo watched everything from the backrest of the couch, dutifully sitting next to Jonghyun’s head, eyeing his food expectantly, but not trying to steal anything from it as if she knew that Jonghyun would give her something in the end if she just waited patiently.

 

“Lied to you about having a libido? Oh, come on, Jonghyun! That’s ridiculous – even for you,” Taemin smacked, gesturing around with his chopsticks, grease glistening on his lips as he spoke.

 

“Okay, let’s just assume he really uses Grindr to get himself laid. Where is the problem with that?” Jinki asked frankly, glancing at Jonghyun. “He’s a good-looking, single man in his mid-twenties who is very busy with his job – so online dating is a legit method for finding him someone he can blow off some steam with.”

 

“Talking from experience here?” Taemin grinned and winked at Jinki before he picked up another piece of beef and bit into it.

 

“Oh, I lived on that site when I still went to university. A lot of foreigners are on there. It was a fun time,” Jinki admitted immediately, Taemin lifting his hand with a chuckle to give him a high-five.

 

“That’s my man!”

 

Jonghyun only halfheartedly listened to the conversation of the other two, not sure what to think, his patience with the puppies next to him finally coming to an end when Naruto bit into the end of his chopsticks, growling as if he wanted to kill them. One by one he grabbed Naruto and Mononoke and sat them down onto the floor, the puppies still too small to get back on the couch themselves. They wailed a little as they tried to stand on their hind paws, forepaws braced against the couch, tails wagging.

 

“See, Jinki is like a jackpot in human form and still used Grindr. Not just creeps linger on there. Man, give that guy a chance. You haven’t brought anyone home in ages. Does your dick still even know what it’s made for other than just pissing?”

 

“Taemin,” Jonghyun sighed extensively. “I’m happy that you enjoy your sexuality so much, really,” he began, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible. “But I’m not like that, okay? I need an emotional connection before I can get myself into something sexual. So the concept of Grindr just exceeds my imagination. I accept your lifestyle so please accept mine. I don’t know why this is so hard for you to understand.”

 

“Drunk you who was desperate to fuck my boyfriend was so much more fun,” Taemin replied casually and tore off a piece of beef with his fingers to hand it to Roo who almost tumbled over from the backrest out of excitement, swiftly catching the beef and moving away from Jonghyun to sit down next to Taemin’s head immediately. Traitor.

 

“When you have such a big problem with Kibum having a profile on Grindr then why aren’t you asking him what he uses it for? Wouldn’t that clarify everything immediately? Just tell him that Taemin found his profile and that you were wondering if he uses it regularly. Problem solved.”

 

The instructions were clear and straightforward but Jonghyun still pulled a face, not liking the idea of confronting Kibum upfront about this topic. Wasn’t that a little invasive and embarrassing?

 

“I don’t know. That would be embarrassing,” Jonghyun said out loud, trying to bribe his dog by holding a piece of chicken in front of her snout. They couldn’t all gang up on him and leave him alone on his side of the couch. He needed an ally.

 

“Should I ask him? I have no problem with that!”

 

When Taemin leaned forward to reach for his phone on the table, Jonghyun immediately started panicking and pushed his cousin back into the couch with a repeated “No Taemin, no!” as if he was telling one of his dogs off.

 

“I’m an adult. I can handle stuff myself.”

 

Jonghyun straightened up a bit, not really sure if he himself believed in what he had just said.

 

“Cool, then be an adult and write him a message.”

 

 

**Day 115**

 

Jonghyun hadn’t messaged Kibum that night or the following. Instead, he had ignored the vet and had taken Roo on walks alone through the park, acting like a child who had been hit by a plastic shovel in a sandpit. It wasn’t like he wanted to ghost Kibum, quite the contrary was the case, but after finding out that Kibum had a profile on what Jonghyun considered an app for whores, he wasn’t sure what to think of the other anymore. What if Kibum was only fooling around, leading him on? What if he wanted to get into his pants and then just leave to find a tall, muscular guy he could have fun with? Jonghyun wasn’t the type for that. He hadn’t had one single one-night-stand in his life and he wanted to keep it that way. 

 

It had taken him days of being in denial before he had finally realized that he was being unreasonable and that his behavior made no sense, since how could he judge someone by something as stupid as a profile on a dating app?

 

Taemin had encouraged him to get back in contact with Kibum so Jonghyun had eventually given in had made an appointment at the vet, killing two birds with one stone by getting his puppies vaccinated at the clinic Kibum worked at.

 

“Good morning, my name is Kim Jonghyun. I’m here for a general check-up and the first vaccination of my dog’s puppies. I have an appointment for 10.30AM”

 

Jonghyun leaned over the reception to look at the young woman sitting on the other side, holding Roo’s leash in one hand, and a black transport box with lively puppies in the other.

 

“Just let me have a quick look at our schedule,” she smiled friendly, her hair cut into a short bob. She took a look at the computer screen in front of her and scrolled up through a document before she lifted her head again and asked:

 

“Kim Jonghyun with Byulroo, is that correct?”

 

When Jonghyun nodded, her smile widened and she took a second glance at the screen.

 

“It says that you have requested for Dr. Kim Kibum specifically. He’s still with another patient right now, so please wait over there. Someone will get you when Dr. Kim is ready,” the assistant explained in a melodic voice and gestured towards the waiting room, Jonghyun thanking her before he walked to the anteroom and sat down next to a mother with her child. The girl held a small, purple container with a hamster inside in her hands, looking enviously at the big transport box in Jonghyun’s lap.

 

“That’s a big box,” she said with a toothy grin, flinching when Roo started to sniff her bright pink sandals which didn’t touch the ground yet. The dog only tilted her head in confusion due to her reaction and then started yawning before she settled down and looked up at Jonghyun.

 

“It is!” Jonghyun smiled, turning the transport box with its opening towards the girl so she could take a look inside. “See, there are puppies inside. They need some space, you know,” he explained calmly, the girl curiously leaning forward.

 

“1…2…,” she stopped with a pout and lifted her fingers up to continue counting, mouthing the words silently while she went through the numbers in her head. “1, 2, 3…4 puppies.”

 

She seemed incredibly proud of herself when she got the number correct, Jonghyun nodding in approval. He was completely smitten by the little chubby-faced girl who wore her hair in a bun on the top of her head, a big pink ribbon attached to it.

 

“It’s a boy and three girls. They are a little over seven weeks now,” Jonghyun told her, the girl craning her neck to take a better look at the puppies inside the box who all eagerly tried to reach her through the grille, pushing their faces against it.

 

“They are so cute,” she giggled when Naruto had pushed his way to the front and stuck his tongue out to try and lick her.

 

“They are. Naruto over here likes to nibble on people’s toes and Ponyo the smaller one in the back with the dappled fur loves tummy scratches more than she loves food.”

 

Jonghyun tended to get carried away whenever someone showed even the slightest interest in his dogs, leading to him telling them all about his puppies’ quirks and peculiarities on a regular basis even if the people he spoke to only wanted to be polite.

 

“Ponyo the goldfish princess?” the girl asked, carefully reaching out her hand to touch the puppies’ snouts, cackling when Naruto licked her fingers.

 

“Yes, exactly – the cute, little goldfish princess.”

 

“I love that movie,” she replied excitedly, Jonghyun agreeing with her wholeheartedly.

 

“It’s a great movie, isn’t it?” he asked her, having no problem to talk about movies with a girl who didn’t look like she was even in school yet.

 

“Yes, goldfish Ponyo is so cute. But your puppy Ponyo is cute, too,” the girl giggled. She played with the puppies for a while through the grille, talking to them as if they were old friends, asking Jonghyun questions about them and scolding Naruto for licking her fingers with a chuckle, but not wanting to take her hand away either.

 

“They are a cute bunch, aren’t they?” a pleasant and familiar voice appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the girl’s little tea party, Kibum coming into Jonghyun’s field of vision when he looked up. Jonghyun had always been quite sure that he had no kink for uniforms or the like, but seeing Kibum in his white medical scrubs surely did things to his libido and his heart which fluttered in his chest.

 

“Are you a doctor?” the girl asked unexpectedly as Kibum crouched down in front of them and Roo jumped up excitedly to greet him, tail wagging so hard that it hit the floor several times with a thump.

 

“Yes, I am, Miss. I’m here to pick up this little lady here and her babies,” Kibum explained in a kid-friendly manner while he scratched Roo behind her ears. Jonghyun’s stomach made little flips when Kibum started smiling and he felt the urge to get up and kiss the little dimples on his cheeks.

 

“Are the puppies sick?” the girl asked, worried.

 

“No, but they get a tiny shot so they will stay healthy,” Kibum answered as he got up, looking at Jonghyun for the first time who forgot how to breathe for a second. He couldn’t remember when he had started to fall so hard for his vet, but the feeling made him swoon whenever he was near Kibum. That feeling surely hadn’t changed in the time they hadn’t seen each other.

 

The little girl next to Jonghyun nodded understandingly, a little sulk becoming visible when Jonghyun stood up as well.

 

“Shots hurt, don’t forget to give them a lollipop afterward. They make it hurt a little less,” she said confidently, her mother as well as Jonghyun and Kibum laughing at her adorable response.

 

“Lollipops would make their tummies hurt, but I will make sure to give them a treat afterward,” Kibum winked, waving at the little girl on his way out of the waiting room.

 

“It was nice talking to you,” Jonghyun smiled at her, the little girl grinning at him brightly.

 

“Please take good care of the puppies,” she said, at last, Jonghyun able to hear how the girl told her mother that puppies were way cooler than hamsters and that she wanted to have one as well after he had left the room.

 

“Do I get a special treatment here or why is the vet himself picking me up from the waiting room?” Jonghyun asked as a conversation starter on their way through the corridor, Roo trotting along silently next to them.

 

“Haeun told me that a Mr. Kim with a bundle of Dachshunds mixes requested me, so I thought I should get him myself. You didn’t tell me you would stop by.”

 

Kibum took a quick look at Jonghyun before he stopped in front of a door, opened it and gestured inside.

 

“After you,” he smiled and held the door open so Jonghyun could walk inside with the big transport box.

 

“Yeah, it was a rather spontaneous decision,” Jonghyun mentioned en passant and placed the transport box in the middle of the examination table. The puppies were still light enough to be carried around like that but Jonghyun already feared the moment he would have to walk them all around on a leash, expecting a total chaos.

 

“I haven’t heard from you in a while,” Kibum said while he came over to the table, voice a little more distant than Jonghyun was used to.

 

“Yeah, well – I’ve been busy – the puppies, you know.”

 

Jonghyun scratched his neck sheepishly, not the best at making excuses.

 

“I see. I already thought you were ghosting me.”

 

“No – no – really – I’ve just been very busy that’s all,” Jonghyun lied straight-out, his schedule as empty as the Sahara desert.

 

“That’s good, I’m glad,” was the reply and the honest looking smile Kibum sent Jonghyun’s way made him feel bad for wanting to dismiss someone as lovely as Kibum for something as stupid as an app.

 

“Today we’re going to vaccinate against Distemper, measles, and parainfluenza. Those are some of the most important vaccinations for puppies their age. Because these viruses are quite common in the canine family. They can lead to canine infectious tracheobronchitis also known as kennel cough, intestinal infections, pneumonia and so on.”

 

Jonghyun was impressed how smoothly Kibum transitioned from a private conversation to a medical one, watching as Kibum lifted Mononoke out of the box, grinning when the puppy’s tail fawned uncontrollably.

 

“They grow up so quickly. It feels like yesterday that you were barely the size of my palm and now look at you, you proud, strong princess,” Kibum talked to the puppy, holding her up in front of his face with both hands.

 

“She’s a good eater, and is a serious competition for Naruto.”

 

“That’s good. Don’t let yourself get oppressed by a man, young lady. You rule the world.”

 

The way Kibum talked to Mononoke was so adorable that Jonghyun had a hard time suppressing an infatuated sigh, taking a deep breath as soon the young vet turned his back towards him to walk over to the scale with the little puppy in his arms.

 

“Okay then, please hold still and don’t move too much,” Kibum instructed as he placed the puppy onto the scale, Mononoke not even thinking about sitting still for a second, trying to scramble from the scale right away.

 

“Of course, I didn’t expect anything else from a warrior princess,” he sighed and had to put Mononoke back onto the scale six times before he finally convinced her to stay in place by holding a little treat over her head, the puppy focusing on nothing but the little brown snack, licking her lips impatiently.

 

“She’s a little over 1.8 kg now. Strong, little girl, huh.”

 

Kibum fondled her beneath her floppy ears before he picked her up again, walking her back to the examination table to check her heart and lungs with his stethoscope and examine her eyes, ears, and teeth. After palpating her abdomen and taking her temperature, he got the vaccination ready, doing all that in professional silence with a ‘good girl’ thrown into it from time to time. There was nothing of the casual attitude Kibum had emitted when Jonghyun had first visited the clinic with Roo and Jonghyun questioned if that was his fault for acting like a dick. He held onto Mononoke while he waited for Kibum to come back to the table, stroking her pitch-black fur soothingly, not really knowing what to say.

 

Mononoke was the only one of her siblings with seamlessly black fur, Naruto having brown paws and a brown snout to an otherwise black coat, Mikasa being red and brown spotted, and Ponyo looking like a mini version of Roo with brown paws and snout, and a dappled mix of black, gray and a few tiny white spots on the rest of her coat. Having such a variety of colors in the litter made it quite easy to distinguish between the puppies and not once had Jonghyun mixed them up.

 

“This might prickle for a second,” Kibum announced when he came back to the table with a syringe and held onto Mononoke’s collar. He didn’t wait long before he gave the little puppy the injection and patted the spot right after he was done. Everything had gone so quickly that Mononoke only looked at Kibum a little perplexed, not appearing to have felt anything at all.

 

“Okay, we’re done with the first one. Let’s repeat this another three times,” Kibum joked and placed Mononoke back into the box, going over to the desk in the corner to get a small yellow book from one of the drawers afterward.

 

“Just like Roo has one, her puppies will get a vaccination card as well, please don’t lose them,” he muttered while writing down something into the yellow book, only lifting his head to check the calendar hanging on the wall before he continued writing.

 

The other three puppies followed after he had finished filling out the first vaccination card and Jonghyun felt like he was witnessing a worker in a manufacture; weighing, palpating, examining, vaccinating, repeat. Just like Jonghyun, Roo was watching Kibum like a hawk, not quite sure what was happening to her puppies. She followed Kibum around the room like a duck, keeping a wary eye on her puppies from her position on the floor without making a single sound.

 

Ponyo was the last one to go and when Kibum was finished with her and took a seat to write down the vaccines she had gotten he let out a sigh, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

 

“In 2013 a Neapolitan Mastiff in England delivered a litter of 24 pups. Just imagine doing all this in a row with 24 puppies.”

 

It was a random statement, but it let Jonghyun know that Kibum was slowly turning back from Dr. med. vet. Kim Kibum to simply being Kibum, the cute doctor with that adorable dimple grin.

 

“The poor mother,” was all Jonghyun could say in return, thinking about all the sleepless nights he already had to endure with just four puppies.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Kibum leaned back in his swivel chair when he had finished writing and stretched his arms over his head with a long-stretched sigh, rolling his head between his shoulders.

 

“It’s not even 11 yet and I already feel like going back home to take a nap,” he yawned loudly, Jonghyun still standing next to the examination table, both his hands resting on the transportation box.

 

“How come. Didn’t you get enough sleep?”

 

“Yeah, something like that,” Kibum replied vaguely, leaning to the side to open the bottom drawer of his desk.

 

“Had a date?”

 

Jonghyun looked down at the box in front of him, fidgeting with the clasp of the door, and only glancing up when Kibum started snorting on the other side of the room.

 

“Sure, a very hot date with Garçons. He just didn’t want to go to sleep and kept me awake until 5 AM. He’s my troubled second child. Commes Des was just as annoyed as I was in the end and buried his head beneath the pillow,” he clarified and Jonghyun brightened up immediately, relieved to hear that Kibum hadn’t spent the night with a 1.85m tall Don Juan who he had met on Grindr.

 

“Disappointed?” Kibum asked and stood up when Jonghyun didn’t reply anything, coming up to the other one and holding up a lollipop in front of his face.

 

“Here, because you were so brave today.”

 

The wink that followed made Jonghyun blush and he took the lollipop with a lowly muttered thanks, immediately unwrapping it and sticking it into his mouth. It was strawberry flavor – his favorite.

 

“You are not very talkative today. Is something wrong?”

 

Kibum crouched down in front of Jonghyun then, so close to his crotch that Jonghyun almost jumped back in surprise, his vet looking at him weirdly when all he did was pick up Roo from the ground, holding her close to his face until she started licking it. There, for a quick second, Jonghyun felt jealous of Roo, jealous of her being able to be that close to Kibum without a care in the world. To Roo it didn’t matter whether Kibum used Grindr or not, it didn’t change her opinion of him. She solely liked him for his good ear and back scratches. A quite marvelous attitude, Jonghyun thought, if only he was that simple.

 

“I got a lot of things on my mind lately, that’s all.”

 

“You want to talk about it?” Kibum offered and started chuckling when Roo gave his ear a lick. It would have been the perfect opportunity to ask Kibum the simple question ‘Hey, my cousin found you on Grindr. Are you using it regularly?’ but Jonghyun couldn’t bring himself to form the words in his mouth, felt too embarrassed to ask his vet about something as private as that.

 

“No, not really.”

 

He uttered instead and Jonghyun forced himself to a grin, reaching out his arms so Kibum could hand him over his dog.

 

“We should get going, I don’t want to hold you up. There are probably still a lot of pets who need your help today.”

 

Jonghyun was already on his way out of the door when Kibum asked: “Hey, uhm – do you have time tonight? You could come over and I could cook us something,” causing him to halt in his steps. He pressed his lips together for a second before he turned around, not really knowing what to respond.

 

“I can’t,” he admitted, shrugging helplessly. “It’s Taemin’s night out. He is going to a concert with Jinki, so I’m on puppy duty,” he added after a moment. “Sorry.”

 

“I understand. It’s okay. Another time – maybe.”

 

Jonghyun sent him what he hoped was a sympathetic smile and then left the room. He let out a deep sigh and shut his eyes as soon he had closed the door behind himself, suddenly feeling bad for acting the way he just had. He pondered whether he should go back or not while he waited at the reception to pay the bill and all the way to the subway, expectantly looking at Roo in hope she could give him some sort of advice. But she only sat there in his lap on the train, paws up on his shoulders so she could look outside. It was moments like these when Jonghyun wished that his dog would be able to talk since he was sure that Roo would be someone to give good advice, saying motivational things like “Jonghyun-ah – life is full of chances. Take it lightly!” in a soft, gentle voice, and giving his shoulder a soft squeeze with her tiny paw.

 

When he entered his apartment later he saw Taemin sitting on the floor between the couch and the coffee table, headset on his head and laptop in front of him as he rambled something about a retro computer game.

 

“Yo guys, my cousin just came back home. Do you know what that means? It’s puppy time,” Taemin gushed out excitedly as soon as Jonghyun announced that he was back and looked over at Jonghyun with a bright smile.

 

“That’s puppy exploitation,” Jonghyun huffed as he placed the transport box on the floor and opened it, the puppies scrambling out of it as quickly as possible and running up to Taemin when he called their names.

 

“Oh shut up! The community loves seeing those tiny fur balls. I wanted to end the stream soon anyways. The pups are like dessert! The cherry on top! The chocolate chips in a cookie!”  Taemin justified, picking up Mikasa and Mononoke to hold them up in front of the web camera that was attached to his laptop.

 

“These little terror crumbs have been to the vet today for their first vaccination. Maybe the vaccines were radioactive and they become super dogs with X-ray vision or the ability to fly overnight. That would be super cool,” he told the mop of strangers who watched his stream.

 

Jonghyun had never understood why anyone would watch Taemin talk shit nonstop voluntarily, but there were over 20.000 users subscribed to his Twitch channel, a number so baffling to Jonghyun that he was convinced that these people only watched his cousin’s streams for his face and muted his voice.

 

“Someone in the super chat asked for you. Want to come over and say ‘Hi’ quickly?” Taemin inquired, holding the two pups close to his chest, giggling when the little dogs started to lick him. Jonghyun merely shook his head in response, not wanting to show his face in front of anyone right now, and instead helped Roo out of her harness before he walked to his room to change into blue shorts and a loose black tank top.

 

He was just about to fold his jeans when Taemin came into his bedroom, followed by an agile horde of puppies. Sometimes Jonghyun wondered whether Taemin fed them extra snacks when he wasn’t looking so they would follow him around like baby ducks, stumbling over their short legs every now and then in an attempt to keep up with the big duck.

 

“How did it go?”

 

There was curiosity in Taemin’s voice as he sat down on Jonghyun’s bed, the four puppies trying to get on it as well and failing terribly at it, tumbling and rolling over the floor.

 

“Good. They are all healthy and were very brave during the vaccination,” Jonghyun explained as he put his jeans back into the closet, its interior showing a sea of black clothes with a few specks of colored items here and there.

 

“Not the puppies, I mean Kibum. Did you ask him?”

 

“Nope.”

 

His reply was so instant that Taemin raised an eyebrow at him skeptically, cocking his head to the side.

 

“Why?”

 

“I don’t know. It felt awkward. Besides he was in professional vet mode. I can’t ask him why he uses a hookup site while he gives the puppies vaccines. That just didn’t feel right.”

 

Jonghyun knew that he was only making excuses, very poor ones, the sober look Taemin cast his way only confirming that.

 

“You are unbelievable. How do you even function? I mean. Do you operate on self-pity and water?”

 

For a second Jonghyun only gaped at his cousin with big eyes, not quite sure what to respond. He was so stunned that the only thing he managed to stutter was ‘No’ the word sounding more like a question than a negation of Taemin’s accusation.

 

“I swear to God if you don’t contact him immediately I will.”

 

Taemin almost looked scary as he said that hadn’t it been for the Mickey Mouse sweatpants he was wearing that gave his appearance an almost comical touch.

 

“I can’t, he’s working,” Jonghyun replied quietly, sinking down into an old armchair that he had placed in one of the corners in the room next to his vinyl disc collection, records piling up on either side of it. 

 

“Then send him a message.”

 

When Jonghyun only pulled a distraught face, Taemin took a long breath and straightened up.

 

“If you don’t contact him I will call Jinki.”

 

Utterly confused Jonghyun looked up, having no idea what Taemin’s boyfriend had to do with any of that.

 

“And then?” he asked, puzzled, and lifted up Ponyo who had given up on trying to get on the bed and had decided to walk over to Jonghyun. When had he become his puppies’ second choice? Unloved even by his own flesh and blood.

 

“He’s going to flick your forehead so hard that you will smell blood for a day and hopefully come back to your senses,” Taemin threatened and picked up Jonghyun’s phone from the nightstand.

 

“What the fuck? You are being ridiculous!”

 

“And you are a moron! Invite that guy over. Jinki and I are gone tonight anyway. Just Netflix and chill together or invite him over for a game of Scrabble, just do something – anything, really. That gloomy single role doesn’t suit you at all.”

 

Taemin meant business by the way he talked, leaving no room for any further discussion as he looked Jonghyun straight in the eye. Something he must have learned from spending so much time with Jinki.

 

His cousin held up his phone and when Jonghyun refused to stand up to get it he pretended to unlock the phone as if he had all the time in the world, causing Jonghyun to jump up from his seat and dash forward, grabbing the phone out of Taemin’s hand, cussing.

 

“I honestly hate you – so much,” Jonghyun grumbled through clenched teeth, having no idea why he was supposed to listen to anything his cousin said at all.

 

 

 


End file.
